The law finally catches up with former Castellón cacique Fabra

Bringing the PP baron to court has been like running an obstacle course

MARÍA FABRA Castellón 2 OCT 2013 – 19:23 CET

The trial of former Castellón provincial chief and powerful Popular Party (PP) baron in the region of Valencia, Carlos Fabra, for alleged influence-peddling, bribery and tax fraud began on Wednesday, a decade after the first accusations were lodged against him.

In its written allegations, the popular prosecution in the form of the consumer protection group Unión de Consumidores described Fabra as a “magician in obtaining illegal ends.”

Carlos Fabra leaving the provincial High Court of Castellón on Wednesday. / DOMENECH CASTELLÓ (EFE)

Unlike on other occasions he has appeared in court the 67-year-old Fabra, who faces a jail sentence of up to 13 years and a fine of 1.9 million euros if found guilty, was not accompanied by anyone from his party.

Prosecutors have accused Fabra and his former wife, María Amparo Fernández, of defrauding the Treasury of some 700,000 euros between 1999 and 2003. However, Fabra’s lawyer on Wednesday argued that tax inspectors who handled the case could not be considered as independent expert witnesses as they are administration assistants of the Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s office.

The public prosecutor also claims Fabra acted as an intermediary for third parties with public administrations and accepted money for doing so.

The three magistrates conducting the trial are the same ones that attempted to have the accusation of taking bribes lodged against Fabra thrown out. Neither the state nor the public prosecutor have questioned their fitness to preside over the trial.

Since the case began in December 2003 — following accusations by a businessman that Fabra had taken bribes to intervene with the Agriculture Ministry to obtain permits — nine judges and four prosecutors have been involved in it. While the investigation proceeded, Fabra continued in his post as Castellón provincial chief, handling public money and presiding over the PP’s affairs in his particular fiefdom.

Part of the public’s money went to build an airport at Castellón, which has never been used as such, with the facilities dominated by a huge statue of Fabra himself. That was just one of several pharaonic monuments to human folly and hubris that marked a boom period in the region fueled by a massive real estate bubble.

During that period no one in the PP demanded that Fabra account for the accusations lodged against him. The head of the PP and now prime minister, Mariano Rajoy, at one point lauded Fabra as an “exemplary citizen.”

Fabra even tried to prevent the distribution of newspapers that had reported on the case and the judge who eventually formalized the accusation against him, Jacobo Pin, felt the need to seek the protection of the General Council of the Judiciary (CGPJ), the legal watchdog, after claiming that the Castellón Provincial High Court, the president of which was a personal friend of Fabra, had tried to put pressure on him to drop the case. Pin’s complaint went all the way to the Supreme Court, who gave the magistrate “total freedom” to proceed with the case.

After the Castellón Provincial High Court in 2010 threw out four of the five tax fraud charges against Fabra because they had exceeded the statute of limitations, it was again the Supreme Court that intervened to over-rule that decision.

Members of Fabra’s family were also included in the investigation after a report found that it had quadrupled its combined wealth in five years, but eventually only his former wife was formally accused. Fabra himself won a major prize in the national lottery no less than four times. One way of laundering illegally obtained money is to purchase winning lottery tickets.

Fabra has denied all the charges against him and at one point defended himself by saying: “I have never personally benefitted from my position as provincial chief of Castellón or as president of the Popular Party in the region. My public duties have never brought me any gain or revenue or than my official remuneration.”

via http://elpais.com/elpais/2013/10/02/inenglish/1380734613_504452.html

Work halted on giant gas storage plant after minor earthquakes detected in area

EU-backed facility was due to open this summer, and can store 50 days’ of the country’s needs 

MERCÈ PÉREZ PONS / ELENA G. SEVILLANO Tarragona / Madrid 1 OCT 2013 – 15:21CET 

The Industry and Energy Ministry has halted activity at the Castor offshore subterranean gas storage plant after some 200 minor earthquakes were detected last week around the area of Vinarós, on the Ebro Delta in the province of Castellón.

The EU-backed facility, Spain’s largest, was due to open this summer, and has the capacity to store 50 days’ worth of the country’s natural gas needs. But for the last year many local residents, particularly fishermen in the Ebro River delta, have complained about the impact of the vast site, which is located immediately off the coastline.

Developed by Spain’s ACS and Dundee Energy of Canada, Castor is not yet online, and is at the phase of injecting the so-called cushion gas needed to provide the pressurization to extract remaining gas from a storage facility.

In a statement on September 26, the Industry Ministry ordered the injections to be stopped, calling for a detailed report from the country’s National Geographic Institute (IGN) on the seismic activity detected in the area.

Emilio Carreño, director of the IGN, said scientists were puzzled as to why the mini earthquakes were taking place so long after gas injections had stopped. The plant stopped injecting gas on September 16.

Carreño says the IGN had detected 220 mini earthquakes in less than a month, the strongest registering 3.6 on the Richter scale on September 24. He said that the seismic activity was taking place in an area that was normally calm.

The facility takes gas from the national grid for storage and pumps it back into the grid when it is needed, and is based on the geological structure of the old depleted Vinarós Castellon offshore oilfield. A 19-bank international consortium, five of which are Spanish, provided the $1.6 billion in financing. The site will be connected to the coast via a 13.6-mile-long offshore pipeline.

Spain has no hydrocarbons and imports more than 99 percent of its gas needs, making it Europe’s largest importer of liquefied natural gas (LNG), accounting for almost a half of European imports.

Gas consumption is rising quickly. The Arab Spring has highlighted the strategic importance of the Castor project to provide reliable storage of LNG. Algeria is Spain’s biggest supplier, making up around a third of imports. In an earlier bid to diversify supply, in 1998 the government passed legislation restricting any single country from supplying more than 60 percent of Spain’s natural gas imports. Spain is also supplied by Nigeria, Qatar, and Trinidad and Tobago.

The earthquakes have been low intensity, but affected around 75,000 people living along the coastline between the towns of Alcanar in Tarragona, to Peñíscola in Castellón, as well as prompting criticism from environmental groups. The authorities in the town of Benicarló called on the industry ministry to halt the gas injections “until the seismic situation was under control.”

Alcanar’s fishing community also accuses Escal UGS, Castor’s leading contractor, of damaging their nets and says that fishing boats cannot operate within a half-mile radius of the facilities. Escal UGS has paid some financial compensation to local fishermen, but they are still complaining about diminishing catches and are demanding a further 100,000 euros in compensation for damages.

Via http://elpais.com/elpais/2013/10/01/inenglish/1380633532_298816.html